Letters to the editor: Heller column distorts reality; Thank you for all your help

Published 1:01 am, Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Thank you for all your help

In the spirit of the holiday, I would like to say thank you! Thank you to our 18,000 adult members of Girl Scouting who volunteered their time, resources, and giving hearts to changing the lives of 44,000 Girl Scouts across Connecticut. This dedication, hard work, and support is needed now more than ever, as we work together to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

For more than 100 years, Girl Scouts, with the help of a valuable volunteer force, has been providing girls with a safe environment to discover about themselves and their values, connect with others to develop healthy relationships, and take action in their communities to make the world a better place. While our cookies, camps, and sing-a-longs are the most recognizable part of the Girl Scouting experience, we continue to evolve to meet the needs of today’s girls. We do this through a variety of exciting, relevant programming including robotics, science and technology, anti-bullying conferences, helping girls build a healthy self-esteem and lead a healthy lifestyle and – most importantly we help girls realize their full leadership potential. This is something the world desperately needs in 2014!

Girl Scouts across Connecticut would not have experienced this wonderful slate of programming without the support and dedication of our volunteers, staff, and most importantly, you! Thank you once again for making that commitment to our girls. I would like to wish everyone a safe, healthy holiday season and happy New Year.

Mary Barneby, Girl Scouts of Connecticut, CEO

Try dropping meat from the menu

With New Year’s resolutions just around the corner, consider the popular trend toward a healthy, eco-friendly, compassionate meat-free diet.

According to Harris Interactive, 47 percent of American consumers are reducing their consumption of animal products. USDA projects this year’s per capita chicken and beef consumption to drop by 8% and 17%, respectively, from their 2006 peaks. Similar dramatic drops are projected for pigs and turkeys. Milk consumption has fallen by a whopping 40% since 1970.

Fast-food chains like Subway and Chipotle are responding to the growing demand by rolling out vegan options. Taco Bell has found that 43 percent of conversations about meat were negative. The Baltimore, Los Angeles, and San Diego school districts, serving more than a million meals a day, have adopted Meatless Mondays.

How about dropping animals from the menu for this New Year’s resolution? Entering “Meatout Mondays” in a search engine brings tons of useful recipes and transition tips.

Warner Hansen, Waterbury

Heller column distorts reality

Stanley Heller’s disingenuous diatribe (‘Enough about “peace process”. Gaza under siege’, Dec. 22) totally distorted reality. Gaza’s current “suffering” is due solely to Hamas. Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Strip in 2005, graciously leaving behind state-of-the-art greenhouses that were promptly trashed. It has faced unremitting hostility from there ever since. Rocket barrages and mortar shells, abated only by military counter-responses, regularly have rained down on terrorized southern Israel civilians. Rampant arms smuggling, via tunnel or sea, has posed a constant threat; instead of being used to strengthen infrastructure, construction materials, such as cement and metal, have been diverted to lining terror tunnels into Israel and arms manufacture.

Not only Gaza was affected by flooding. So, too, was Israel. Gaza received over ten inches of rain over three days, an amount over 60 percent of its average annual rainfall. While Hamas sought to deflect blame for its incompetent governance by claiming Israel had released water from nonexistent Negev Desert dams, Israel set up a joint command center in the West Bank with the Palestinian Authority to handle storm-related problems. It offered to do “everything necessary to assist the civilian populations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria”. It supplied water pumps to Gaza. As for low gas supplies there, the New York Times noted that “the Palestinian Authority can always ship fuel to Gaza via Israel but Hamas has accused the Authority of imposing high taxes on the fuel and refused to buy it”.

In this instance, as ever, Palestinian propagandists and their Western enablers will not let go to waste, regardless of the facts, any possible opportunity to smear Israel.